Maymont

Maymont is a 100-acre Victorian estate and public park in Richmond, Virginia. It was built from 1890 to 1893 after Major James H. Dooley's wife Sallie May fell in love with the view offered by a cattle farm previously located on the site, and it was built in an eclectic style, combining French and Roman styles. Mrs. Dooley also imported Italian and Japanese trees and built massive gardens, and, within the house, she built a swan-themed bedroom for herself (including a famous swan bed); Mr. Dooley acquired a set of French Havilland cutlery which had been produced as a copy of the White House's cutlery under Rutherford B. Hayes, and he built a lavish study and dining room on the first floor. The estate was worked mostly by African-American domestic workers who lived at a house around .25 miles from the main building, and they often stayed at the mansion for many days, tending to anywhere between 12 and 100 people for special events. When Mrs. Dooley died in 1925, two years after her husband, the estate and the surrounding lands were left to the state, which neglected to take care of the aging mansion until the 1970s, when the people of Richmond pressured the government to revitalize the site. Today, Maymont is a public park and museum, and special events such as weddings are often held on the grounds.